Adrian Sutton is a Child & Family Psychiatrist previously at the Winnicott Centre, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. For some years now he has been visiting an area in Uganda that had suffered over a generation of war and dislocation.

In particular he has been and remains in contact with a children's village in Gulu run by SOS Villages. He has done some teaching while visiting there and is currently with them and the local child psychiatrist again. Establishing a link could be an extremely productive exercise for all parties. The village itself takes in orphaned and abandoned children and allows them to keep contact into early adulthood. As anyone can imagine, along with significant levels of poverty and continuing threats of dislocation, the enduring depth and extent of mental pain and emotional distress can be great, as can be the enormous capacity of people there on the ground to make extraordinary efforts to give these children and young people an “ ordinary enough” and safe life. Nor can the personal determination and emotional strength of the young themselves be overlooked.

When circumstances, including electricity supplies and communication networks permit, Adrian is writing up his experiences and observations to share with others. We at PETT hope you will find his communications interesting, and your comments are most welcome.

If you've been to the PETT in Toddington, you don't need an excuse to come again; but you may not fully realise what a special village Toddington is, and what special things there are in the area for you and the family. This new GUEST AND TEAM BLOG feature invites friends and visitors, as well as members of the PETT team, to share what they've discovered and/or something they really like about the area. We can do the footwork, with photographs and so on - you just help with the discoveries. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to share.

The Bi-Blog/Tri-Blog is an online discussion between eminent therapeutic communiters David Kennard and Bob Hinshelwood. with an open invitation to readers to join in the conversation (Tri-Blog? Quad-Blog?)? by sending a blog entry to Craig or using the Comment facility at the bottom of each page.

David Kennard (pictured left) is an independent consultant psychologist/group analyst working with forensic services, hospices and asylum seekers.

Author of the seminal "An Introduction to Therapeutic Communities" he is a founding member and former Chair of the UK Network of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS UK); and apart from an active career as a therapeutic community practitioner, researcher and writer, is also a former editor of the Therapeutic Communities journal.

Bob Hinshelwood (pictured right) is a Trustee of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust, Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Professor in the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, and previously Director of the Cassel Hospital.

He has written extensively on psychoanalysis (including A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought, 1989, Clinical Klein 1994) and its application to healthcare (including Suffering Insanity 2004), and to observational studies on social organisations (including co-authoring with Wilhem Skogstad Observing Organisations 2000). He has a long association with Therapeutic Communities, having founded the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities (now Therapeutic Communities) in 1980 for the Association of Therapeutic Communities (now merged with the Charterhouse Group of Therapeutic Communities to form TCTC - The Consortium of Therapeutic Communities).

Running alongside the Bi-Blog, responding to and challenging it with comments, diversions, digressions, amplifications, interventions...is a second blog, the 'By the Bi-Blog Blog'.

Want to comment on the Bi-Blog/Tri-Blog but feel diffident? Want to add information, or run off inspired in a different direction? The By the Bi-Blog Blog runs alongside the Bi-Blog/Tri-Blog with whatever comments, diversions, digressions, amplifications, interventions, or whatever you wish provide, by sending a contribution to Craig via email or using the Comment facility at the bottom of each page.